1916 in Ireland

Events

• 14 February – John Redmond is re-elected Chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Dublin.
• 29 February – the week-long Derry Feis opens in the city.
• 21 March – a crowd attacks Sinn Féin's Tullamore headquarters; three police are injured.
• 20-21 April – the German-controlled cargo steamer, masquerading as, is intercepted by the Royal Navy and scuttled following an unsuccessful attempt to land arms for the Irish Volunteers in Tralee Bay.
• 21 April – Roger Casement and two others are arrested at Banna Strand, County Kerry, for attempting to land arms and ammunition.
• 22 April – Eoin MacNeill, Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers cancels all manoeuvres of Volunteers planned for the following day.
• 23 April – Easter Sunday: the military council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood meets at Liberty Hall and decides to begin the planned insurrection at noon the next day. The Proclamation of the Republic is signed by the seven leaders in the name of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. Volunteers from Belfast and County Cork begin manoeuvres but return home.

• 24 April – the Easter Rising begins in Dublin. The Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army occupy the General Post Office, City Hall, the College of Surgeons, the Four Courts, Jacob's Factory, Boland's Mills, the South Dublin Union, and the Mendicity Institution. At noon Patrick Pearse reads the proclamation outside the General Post Office, Dublin. Liam Mellows leads a rising of Volunteers in County Galway.
• 25 April – martial law is declared in Dublin by the British authorities for a period of one month.
• 26 April
• *Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Thomas Dickson and Patrick McIntyre are summarily executed at Portobello Barracks.
• *Dublin-built HMS Helga shells Liberty Hall from the Liffey.
• 27 April
• * Major-General Sir John Maxwell arrives in Dublin to take command of the British Army, 12,000 of whose troops are now in the city; the centre is cordoned off.
• * Gas attack at Hulluch in France: The 47th Brigade, 16th Division is decimated in one of the most heavily concentrated German gas attacks of World War I.
• ** Newspaper Strike in Dublin - until May 5.
• 28 April – Battle of Ashbourne: A group of Volunteers at Ashbourne, County Meath, force the Royal Irish Constabulary to surrender with the loss of 8 police to 2 Volunteers.
• 29 April – at 3.45pm, Patrick Pearse, James Connolly and Thomas MacDonagh surrender unconditionally as the Easter Rising collapses.
• 1 May – the Easter Rising collapses. Sir John Maxwell, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces announces that all involved in the insurrection have surrendered.
• 3 May – following their courts martial, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas J. Clarke are executed at Kilmainham Gaol.
• 4 May – the executions continue. Joseph Plunkett, Michael O'Hanrahan, Edward Daly and Willie Pearse are executed for their part in the Rising. The Chief Secretary of Ireland, Augustine Birrell, resigns.
• 5 May – John MacBride, another leader of the Rising, is executed today. W. T. Cosgrave is sentenced to death, however, this is later commuted to penal servitude for life.
• 8 May – another four leaders of the Easter Rising are executed. They are Éamonn Ceannt, Conn Colbert, Michael Mallin and Seán Heuston.
• 11 May – during a debate in the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the Irish crisis, John Dillon of the Irish Parliamentary Party calls on the British government to end the executions of the Easter Rising leaders.
• 12 May – two more leaders, Seán Mac Diarmada and James Connolly are executed. Connolly, who was wounded in the fighting, is strapped to a chair and shot. Meanwhile, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith arrives in Dublin for a week-long visit.
• 15 May – the trial of Roger Casement begins in London. He is charged with high treason for his part in the Easter Rising.

• 17 May – Thomas O'Dwyer, Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick, refuses a request to discipline two of his curates who expressed republican sympathies. He reminds General Maxwell that he had shown no mercy to those who surrendered.
• 21 May – daylight saving time begins for the first time throughout the United Kingdom as people put their clocks forward one hour. The purpose is to reduce the number of evening hours to save fuel.
• 26 June – Roger Casement goes on trial at the Royal Courts of Justice on a charge of treason. He has been stripped of his knighthood.
• 1 July – the Battle of the Somme begins. The 36th Ulster Division, which contains many Ulster Volunteers, loses 5,500 men in the first two days.
• 23 July – thousands attend an open-air meeting at the Phoenix Park in Dublin to discuss the British government's Irish partition proposals. It is the first open-air meeting since martial law was proclaimed.
• 26 July – the date of 3 August is set as the execution date of Roger Casement.
• 3 August – Roger Casement is hanged at Pentonville Prison for high treason.
• 19 August – The Irish Times in Dublin issues a 264-page handbook detailing the events of the Easter Rising; a 2nd edition is published by the end of the year.
• 1 October – time in Ireland: Dublin Mean Time is made the same as British time from 2:00 am today under terms of the Time Act, 1916.
• 29 October – John Redmond demands the abolition of martial law, the release of suspected persons, and that Irish prisoners be treated as political prisoners.
• 5 November – Honan Chapel, Cork, a product of the Irish Arts and Crafts movement, is dedicated.
• 18 November – Battle of the Somme ends after 141 days; stopped by foul weather and with thousands of Irish casualties.
• 21 December – in the British House of Commons, it is announced that all Irish prisoners are to be released.
• 25 December – the last group of Irish prisoners, 460 men from Reading Gaol, arrive in Dublin. Seán T. O'Kelly and Arthur Griffith are among those released.

  Arts and literature

• 2 April – W. B. Yeats's play At the Hawk's Well is first performed, privately in London.
• 7 August – there is a large audience at the Bohemian Theatre in Dublin for the first screening of the Film Company of Ireland's first film O'Neill of the Glen.
• September – W. B. Yeats' poem Easter 1916 is written.
• 13 December – Lennox Robinson's play The Whiteheaded Boy is premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
• 29 December – James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is first published complete in book form in New York.
• Daniel Corkery's short stories A Munster Twilight are published.
• George Noble Plunkett is dismissed from his post as curator of the National Museum of Ireland and deported to Oxford.

  Sport

Soccer

• ;Irish League
• :Winners: Linfield
• ;Irish Cup
• :Winners: Linfield 1–1, 1–0 Glentoran

  Gaelic Games

• ;Senior Football Championship
• :Winners: Wexford
• :Wexford 3–4 : 1–2 Mayo
• ;Senior Hurling Championship
• :Winners: Tipperary
• :Tipperary 5–4 : 3–2 Kilkenny

  Births

• 19 March – James Jackman, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry at Tobruk, Libya, the day before his death.
• 19 March – Peter Kavanagh, writer, scholar and publisher.
• 13 April – Ralph Cusack, English High Court judge.
• 20 April – Gerard Dillon, painter.
• 20 May – Francis Blackwood, 10th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye.
• 21 May – Sam Thompson, playwright.
• 30 May – Jackie Power, Limerick hurler and Gaelic footballer.
• 6 July – Hugh Gibbons, Roscommon Gaelic footballer and Fianna Fáil TD.
• 23 July – Tom O'Higgins, barrister and judge, Irish Chief Justice, Fine Gael TD and twice defeated Irish presidential candidate.
• 31 July – Brian Inglis, journalist, historian and television presenter.
• 14 August – Máirín Lynch, wife of Taoiseach Jack Lynch.
• 4 September – Alexis FitzGerald Snr, solicitor, Fine Gael Seanad member.
• 8 September – John M. Feehan, author and publisher.
• 24 September – Robin Kinahan, Unionist politician and businessman.
• 3 October – Frank Pantridge, physician, cardiologist and inventor of the portable defibrillator.
• 17 October – Jack Bowden, cricketer and hockey player.
• 27 October – Nigel Trench, 7th Baron Ashtown, peer and diplomat.
• 3 November – Rúaidhrí de Valera, archaeologist.
• 10 November – Louis le Brocquy, artist.
• 25 November – Cosmo Haskard, British Army officer, Governor of the Falkland Islands.
• 8 December – T. K. Whitaker, civil servant, economist.
• 14 December – Tomás de Bhaldraithe, Irish language scholar and lexicographer.
• 16 December – Michael Carty, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 21 December – Seán Brosnan, barrister, Fianna Fáil TD and Senator.
• 25 December – Noel Larmour, cricketer and diplomat.
• Paddy Fahey, fiddler

  Deaths

• 9 January – Ada Rehan, actress in the United States.
• 16 February – Adelaide Maria Guinness, wife of Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, first owner of Farmleigh.
• 18 March – Stopford Augustus Brooke, Anglican clergyman and writer.
• 26 April
• *Francis Browning, cricketer.
• *Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, suffragist, pacifist and writer, murdered by British Army.
• 29 April – The O'Rahilly, killed during the Easter Rising.
• 3 May
• *Tom Clarke, nationalist, rebel and organiser of the Easter Rising, executed.
• *Thomas MacDonagh, nationalist, poet, rebel and an Easter Rising leader, executed.
• *Patrick Pearse, teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist, an Easter Rising leader, executed.
• 4 May
• *Edward Daly, Easter Rising participant, executed by firing squad.
• *Willie Pearse, Easter Rising participant, executed, brother of Patrick Pearse.
• *Joseph Plunkett, nationalist, poet, journalist and an Easter Rising leader, executed.
• 5 May – John MacBride, nationalist, rebel and an Easter Rising leader, executed.
• 8 May
• *Éamonn Ceannt, nationalist, rebel and an Easter Rising leader, executed.
• *Conn Colbert, nationalist and rebel, Easter Rising participant, executed.
• *Seán Heuston, Fianna Éireann member, Easter Rising participant, executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol.
• *Michael Mallin, second in command of Irish Citizen Army, Easter Rising participant, executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol.
• 9 May – Thomas Kent, nationalist and rebel, executed following a gunfight with the RIC.
• 12 May
• *James Connolly, socialist, trade unionist, nationalist, rebel and an Easter Rising leader, executed.
• *Seán Mac Diarmada, nationalist, rebel and an Easter Rising leader, executed.
• 5 June – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British Field Marshal and statesman.
• 1 July – William Crozier, cricketer.
• 23 July – Thomas MacDonald Patterson, politician and newspaper publisher in the United States.
• 3 August – Roger Casement, British diplomat, nationalist, poet and Irish revolutionary, executed at Pentonville Prison.
• 25 August – Maurice O'Rorke, politician and Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives.
• 9 September – Thomas Kettle, writer, barrister, Nationalist politician and economist, killed in action.
• 19 October – Alexander Young, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1901 at Ruiterskraal, South Africa, killed in action.
• 25 October – John Todhunter, poet and playwright.
• 2 November – Frank Hugh O'Donnell, writer and nationalist politician.
• 18 December – Henry Mitchell Jones, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1855 at Sebastopol, Crimea.
• 22 December – James O'Kelly, nationalist politician and journalist, Irish Parliamentary Party MP.